A rather impressive collection of comics has been discovered in a Virginia man’s closet by the late owner’s nephew. 345 in all, the collection has been dubbed the “Billy Wright Collection”, after the original owner.
Contained within the collection are some of the most rare comics known to mankind. Among the books found neatly stacked in that closet are: ‘Action Comics’ #1 (the first appearance of Superman), ‘Detective Comics’ #27 (the first appearance of Batman), ‘All-American Comics’ #1 (the first appearance of The Green Lantern), ‘Batman’ #1, and ‘Marvel Comics’ #1 (the first appearance of the first Human Torch and Namor, The Sub-Mariner), among others. In addition to those five, which are arguably five out of the six most valuable comics in the game, The Billy Wright Collection also includes forty-five of the top 100 comics overall.
Today, the entire collection goes up for sale at Heritage’s Vintage Comics and Comic Art Signature Auction in New York City at the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion (Ukrainian Institute of America) at 2 East 79th Street (at 5th Ave.). The auction is projected to pull in over $6 million. Along with the Billy Wright Collection, other incredibly rare treasures of the comic book world will be auctioned off, including an ‘Action Funnies’ Ashcan Edition from 1937, a large size cover of John Romita Sr.’s ‘Amazing Spider-man Annual’ #3, a ‘Dark Knight Returns’ #1 double page spread featuring Two-Face, and two pieces of original Dark Knight artwork signed by Frank Miller.
For those of you comic book collectors out there with a few thousand dollars to spare, make sure to stop by the auction to pick up these extremely rare pieces of comic book history. As for me, I’ll sit here trying to justify a way for one of these items to count as a business expense while I pray that my collection will be this valuable some day (although that’s probably very, VERY unlikely).
For a look at some of the most expensive comics ever sold, check out this list of the ‘Top 5 Comic Book Sales of All Time’.
